NEIL LENNON has weighed into the battle for SPFL supremacy insisting it’s far too early to discount anybody from challenging Celtic – including his own side.

The Irishman fielded questions on the potential battles this season and if he thought Celtic and Rangers* would be the runaway pairing in the league.

While Hibernian have lost John McGinn to Villa this season they’ve brought a few players in and retained the services of attacker Florian Kamberi in the hope of mounting the best challenge possible.

Asked how he sees the season going at his pre-match press conference, the former Celtic boss believes his former club will still win the league and also insists there is a certain hype around the Ibrox club which has more flash than substance at the moment, upsetting some Ibrox fans.

“I think it’s too early to say if Celtic and Rangers are going to go on and become the top two teams. There’s obviously a significant improvement at Rangers – but for me it was not that major a job to do on the back of what wasn’t a great season for them last year.

“They are investing, which is something the likes of ourselves, Aberdeen and Hearts can’t do. But on any given day any team can be beaten.

“I still think Celtic will win the league. Whether the gap gets closer remains to be seen.

“Rangers will be firm favourites for second place but I don’t believe in the hype. There is a lot of hysteria around big clubs, not just in Scotland but England and elsewhere.

“But when you sit down and watch the games, you think, ‘Mmm… mmm. Not so sure’.”

Hibs are due at Celtic Park in October in a fixture which has been really competitive between Rodgers and Lennon.

They also welcome the Ibrox club to Easter Road the week after their visit to Celtic Park at the end of October.

The Lurgan born manager will get a truer idea what he’s up against after that.